“We make people beautiful every day — we might as well make the planet beautiful.”

Diane Adams-Hagerman, owner operator of Headz Up hair salon in Clarenville, says giving back to the environment and taking steps to recycle, reduce and reuse products was the impetus for a unique recycling project with Green Circle Salons.

Headz Up Hair Studio owner-operator Diane Adams-Hagerman says she’s found an environmentally friendly way to cut waste at her salon.

She would look at all the hair that was being thrown away every day wondered if it might have another use for it instead of going to waste.

Then she heard of an initiative from Redken Colour, a brand of products she uses at the salon.

Adams-Hagerman told The Packet it’s been just over a year since she signed up to become one of the more than 2,000 Green Circle Salons in North America, and the first in the Clarenville area.

Now the hair waste, as well as the foils, colour and used products from manicures, waxing and more, all shipped off to be recycled instead of being thrown out with the trash.

There are over 2,000 Green Circle Salons in North America, but Headz Up is the only one in the Clarenville area.

At the salon the waste is sorted and placed in boxes, then sent by courier to the mainland for recycling.

In over a year, the Headz Up has contributed over 300 pounds of solid and liquid material for recycling.

Adams-Hagerman adds they’ve reduced their weekly output of garbage from four to five bags to less than one.

The products they send off for recycling find a new purpose. Adams-Hagerman says things like foil and tubes used in hair colouring, they can be turned into bicycle parts.

Left over liquid hair colouring dye is collected and eventually used to produce energy.

And as for the hair itself, which once ended up in the trash, Adams-Hagerman says it will end up being used in pet beds, mattresses and containment booms for oil spills, and to reinforce concrete.

“Hair can absorb 12-times its own weight in oil … And they made mattresses for people who were homeless in Haiti when they had that big hurricane down there,” she told The Packet.

She says hair doesn’t decompose — so she’s happy to be able to make sure it’s sent somewhere where it’ll have another use.

“I figured it was something to do for our children and grandchildren, with the planet.”

She says she likes being green and knowing that they can do something to help the environment with her business.

“Now it comes naturally.”

What are Green Circle Salons?

Founded in Toronto by Shane Price in 2009, Green Circle Salons helps locations become green to reduce impact on the environment and cut waste.

The salons pay a fee to become a Green Salon and ship their waste — including hair – for recycling. The aim is to divert from landfills up to 85-95 per cent of the waste a salon produces.

The goal is to have all salons eventually participating in the eco-friendly initiative.